The panel recounted on Thursday how former President Trump’s actions brought the nation to the brink of a constitutional crisis and raised fresh questions about whether those actions also were criminal, reports The New York Times.
The committee played videotaped testimony in which Vice President Pence’s top White House lawyer, Greg Jacob, said little-known conservative lawyer John Eastman had admitted in front of Trump two days before the Jan. 6 riot that his plan to have Pence obstruct the electoral certification violated the law.
The panel also provided a reconstruction of Pence’s harrowing day on Jan. 6. It began with a phone call in which Trump berated him as a “wimp” and questioned his manhood for resisting his order to obstruct the electoral count. It grew more dire as Trump, knowing his supporters were attacking the Capitol with the vice president inside, tweeted a public condemnation of him, further whipping up the crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”
Through testimony from a conservative legal scholar, Jacob and other West Wing aides, as well as Pence’s own words, the committee dismantled the legal argument Trump and Eastman relied on, showing that it had no legal or historical precedent and went against the fundamental tenets of American democracy. They also showed that both men knew their plans weren't legitimate but pushed forward anyway.
Following the riot, Eastman sought a pardon after being informed by one of Trump’s top White House lawyers that he had criminal exposure for hatching the plan, according to an email shown by the committee during the session.
The portrait that emerged of Pence was that of a man who risked his life to prevent a meltdown of democracy set in motion by the president himself, says the Times.
The portrait that emerged of Pence was that of a man who risked his life to prevent a meltdown of democracy set in motion by the president himself, says the Times.
Future hearings are expected to focus on ways Trump and his allies pressured state officials to overturn the election; attempted to interfere with the Justice Department; created slates of pro-Trump electors in states won by Biden; and amassed a mob that marched on the Capitol, while the president did nothing to stop the violence for more than three hours.
The panel has scheduled two more hearings, for June 21 and June 23, at 1 p.m.
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